Data collected from Oman shows that web filtering applied by India-based ISPs is restricting access to content for customers of an ISP in Oman. While unusual, content filtering undertaken in one political jurisdiction can have an effect on users in another political jurisdiction as a result of ISP routing arrangements - a phenomenon known as "upstream filtering."

An international research team based at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs has released a detailed report that tracks and analyzes the difficulties of broadcasting the news into jurisdictions that censor the Internet, including Iran and China.

Censorship-free zones planned in North Korea and China; bloggers accuse Kazakh government of political censorship; Israel denies entry to Palestinian activists based on their social networking activities.

The OpenNet Initiative is pleased to share a report authored by Helmi Noman on the rise of the Syrian Electronic Army, a group of pro-government computer hackers that are actively targeting political opposition and Western websites.